Heavenly Shades of Night
by missemmatorchwood
Summary: 'Each day I pray for evening just to be with you, together at last at twilight time'


**Heavenly Shades of Night **

'Heavenly shades of night are falling it's twilight time

Out of the mist your voice is calling it's twilight time…

Each day I pray for evening just to be with you

Together at last at twilight time'

One at a time, Jack expertly cracked four eggs into the bowl using one hand, just the way he'd seen Paul Hollywood do it so many times on The Great British Baking Show Masterclass episodes. He could hear Mary Berry saying "…now don't get any on the sides…" and he grinned as he looked at his bowl. "Clean as a whistle, Mary old girl, just the way you like." He dropped in a dollop of cream and whisked the eggs briskly with a fork, making sure the whites and yolks were thoroughly blended.

He checked the clock… "Just ten minutes to go." Ianto had phoned earlier to say he'd be home on time come hell or high water and that he was looking forward to dinner.

Sure enough, at precisely 6.45pm Jack heard the sound of a key in the lock and he popped his head around the kitchen door to watch his husband hang up his coat, toe off his boots and put them neatly in the tray and then drop his keys in the bowl on the hall table.

"Welcome home, Yan, I missed you." Jack opened his arms for Ianto to walk into and they hugged one another tightly.

"Missed you too, Cariad." Ianto kissed Jack soundly before drawing back. "Good day?"

"Uneventful, same as always." Jack returned to the kitchen. "Hope you're hungry."

"Starving!" Ianto exclaimed. "Didn't have time for lunch."

"Well, I'm mixing it up tonight," Jack set the pan on the burner, added a bit of bacon grease and lit the fire. "We're having breakfast for dinner."

"I can tell." Ianto breathed in deeply. "Smells delicious… I swear nothing smells as good as bacon, especially when you're hungry."

Jack opened the oven door just enough to peek inside at the bacon roasting on a racked pan on one shelf and a small tray of homemade cinnamon buns baking on another. Satisfied that both were perfectly done, he turned off the heat and pulled out the pastries, leaving the bacon inside to keep warm but also to keep Ianto from snatching a piece before he was ready to serve. He turned the buns out to let them cool slightly so he could slather icing on them without it melting right off.

"Go get changed and wash up… I left your clothes on the bed." Jack pointed down the hall. "The eggs will be done when you get back."

Pouting over not getting an illicit bit of bacon, Ianto hurried to the bedroom where he took off his work clothes and dropped them in the laundry basket before slipping into sleep pants and T-shirt. A quick stop in the ensuite gave him an empty bladder and clean hands and face.

It only took a few minutes for Jack to produce fluffy golden scrambled eggs seasoned with a hint of Beau Monde and he was just plating their food when Ianto returned to the kitchen and slid into his seat at the table. "Tah-da!" he announced dramatically as he set Ianto's plate of eggs and bacon in front of him, put the plate of iced buns in the centre of the table and then put his own plate down.

"This looks wonderful, Jack," Ianto smiled happily, his mouth watering.

Jack's butt had barely touched his chair before he jumped back up. "Butter!" he exclaimed, rushing the few steps to the refrigerator and then returning with the old-fashioned covered glass dish. Before sitting down he paused. "What would you like to drink? Milk, water, juice… I have a good bottle of wine but I don't think it goes with breakfast."

"No," Ianto laughed. "I don't think so either. How about a glass of juice."

"Orange or apple?"

"Oh! Apple, please!" The Welshman was delighted. "Haven't had that in a good while."

Silence reigned while the food was eaten and enjoyed, each bite savoured, and when Ianto bit into his cinnamon bun his moan of please bordered on the erotic.

"Oh Jack, you outdid yourself with these!" He smeared a thick bit of butter on the warm pastry and took another big bite. He closed his eyes as he chewed and after swallowing he smiled lovingly at his husband. "One of your best batches yet, so light but so much flavour!"

Jack smiled indulgently as he pushed the plate closer to Ianto. "Thinking of you makes my bakes delicious every time."

"You are so silly," Ianto smiled back as he accepted a second warm bun.

Food eaten, dishes done, kitchen clean and coffee made, Jack and Ianto retired to the lounge where Jack turned on some soft music as they sat down for a cuddle and a quiet discussion of the day's events. After a while Jack noticed one particular song start playing and he got up, pulling Ianto with him and into his arms.

As they had done so many, many times in the past Jack and Ianto danced seamlessly together, slowly turning about the lounge floor, deftly avoiding the furniture, completely lost in one another.

"Heavenly shades of night are falling…" Jack sang softly in Ianto's ear. "I count the moments, darling, till you're here with me, together at last at twilight time."

Ianto sighed softly and kissed Jack's neck. "Together at last," he echoed quietly.

Finally, a dozen songs later, they drew apart and looked into one another's eyes, the unspoken message of 'time for bed' clear. Jack turned off the music and the lights while Ianto set the coffee mugs in the kitchen sink and then hand-in-hand the couple went into the bedroom and closed the door behind them.

"But I don't understand, Doctor," the man said insistently. "This is the most advanced medical planet in the galaxy so why can't you fix…" He saw the doctor wince at the word. "Sorry, why can't you cure him?"

"I'm sorry, Captain Hart but as I explained before, there's nothing medically wrong with him." The Kantharian physician pushed his spectacles back up his nose. "We've been monitoring him, studying him from the moment you brought him here. His routine is exactly the same, day in and day out. He sleeps most of the day, waking about an hour before the dinner bell. He showers, dresses and then goes about the physical motions of what we've come to realise is cooking. He sets an invisible table, plates and serves invisible food for his guest.

"We know that he has some working awareness of the real world around him because he times the serving of that imaginary food to the same moment his dinner tray is put on his table. He eats his real food while chatting quietly to his invisible companion. Then he goes through the motions of cleaning his invisible kitchen and he ends the night a few hours later by dancing around his room, his arms around an invisible partner."

John Hart felt his heart sink; he had been holding on to so much hope that given vast medical knowledge gathered from across the universe by the very best minds out there that the physicians on Tanta Marahoo would be able to return Jack to him. He now understood exactly what was going on in the tortured mind of Jack Harkness just as he knew who the invisible dinner and dance partner was. "Ianto Jones."

"I beg your pardon?"

Watching Jack sleeping, his arms wrapped around a pillow, a look of peace on his face, Hart sighed deeply. "The invisible partner that Jack is spending his time with is Ianto Jones. Many, many years ago, you know with the time travel thing, Jack fell in love with a human male, back in the Milky Way."

"Really?" The doctor was intrigued. "I've never met a pure-blood human before. What were they like?"

"Feisty, determined, emotional, opinionated…" John smiled fondly. "This male in particular was stubborn as a mule…" He saw the Kantharian's confusion. "A Boklin markel," he amended.

"Ahhh… neighbours had one of those," the doctor seemed quite impressed. "That is indeed stubborn!"

John nodded. "Despite it all, through all the problems I caused and all the adversity he faced during his time with Jack, Ianto Jones never wavered in his love for Jack or Jack for Ianto."

"Wow…"

With a rueful shrug of his shoulders, John Hart admitted, "They were true soul mates in every sense of the word. It broke Jack – not just his heart but his spirit – when Ianto died."

"What happened?"

"Killed by an alien trying to steal human young from their parents, died a true hero, saving the world at twenty-six, way, way too young no matter who he was, but he and Jack had only had a few years together."

"I'm sorry," the doctor murmured. "That is too young for any species."

"So," John shook off the melancholy that was threatening to envelope him the more he thought about Ianto Jones. "What can be done for Jack?"

"Nothing." The doctor was adamant. "There is nothing wrong with him. This state, these behaviours are all his own doing. He's chosen this… this way of life, and until he chooses to leave his fantasy, there's nothing anyone can do for him but provide care."

Accepting the Kantharian doctor's diagnosis with as much grace as possible, John Hart shook his hand and after taking one long last heart-wrenching look at sleeping Jack Harkness, he squared his shoulders and spun on his heel, striding off down the hall to disappear through the swinging doors.

The doctor stood at the one-way observation window, watching his patient smile and tighten his grip on the pillow. He could see Jack's lips moving in silent conversation before he relaxed again and returned to a sleep state.

"So sad," he whispered with a brief shake of his head before leaving to tend to his other patients. "So sad indeed."

End

Twilight Time

The Platters

Songwriters: Artie Dunn, Al Nevins, Morty Nevins, Buck Ram

Heavenly shades of night are falling it's twilight time  
Out of the mist your voice is calling it's twilight time  
When purple coloured curtain mark the end of day  
Hear you my dear at twilight time

Deepening shadows gather splendour as day is done  
Fingers of night will soon surrender the setting sun  
I count the moments darling till you're here with me  
Together at last at twilight time

Here in the afterglow of day we keep your rendezvous beneath the blue  
Here in the sweet and same old day fall in love again as I did then  
Deep in the dark your kiss will thrill me like days of old  
Lighting the spark of love that fills me with dreams untold

Each day I pray for evening just to be with you together at last at twilight time

Deep in the dark  
Together at last at twilight time


End file.
